What I Wish I Knew Before Taking ADHD Medication: Your Questions Answered! Best Of Series #216
How do you feel when you think about taking ADHD medication?
Nervous?
Hopeful?
Overwhelmed?
The process of obtaining and finding the right medication can feel like A LOT.
First, you have to approach the subject with your doctor (who may or may not be well-informed about ADHD) -- and then there is finding the right type and dosing of medication, dealing with potential side effects, and the whole process of trial and error.
It never goes perfectly. But it can go more smoothly -- when you take a few steps to plan and prepare for it.
On this episode of Motherhood in ADHD, I share all my best tips and strategies for starting ADHD medication that I learned the hard way -- from tackling that first conversation with your doc, to riding out your first few months.
You'll learn:
Tips for remembering to take your medication daily (No more, "Ugh, did I actually take that today?" moments)
How to take your medication for maximum effectiveness
How to work with your doctor to start and stop medication safely
Tips for finding the right dosing
What to do if you can't afford your ADHD medication
Tips for approaching the topic of ADHD medication with your doctor (No, you're not a "drug seeker"!)
And so much more!
Your first go-round with ADHD medication doesn't have to be a disaster. You deserve to feel confident, informed and fear-free while you find a treatment plan that works for you.
**This material is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your doctor or a trained medical professional to find the treatment plan that best fits your personal situation.**
This episode is part of our Best Of Series by your requests and originally aired in June 2022.
What if you could feel productive and accomplished, knowing you showed up for the people and things you love most? What if you could look back at your day, and know you did what was on your to-do list?
It’s possible with the Daily Planning for Moms with ADHD course, where I teach you how to keep a calendar and organize your to-do lists in a way that makes sense for your ADHD brain.
Join today at: bit.ly/adhdplan
Patricia Sung 00:00
Hey there Successful Mama, it's your friend Patricia Sung. Well, it is Thanksgiving week and I am currently celebrating with my family. And I shall not leave you to weather the family drama without this without saying that it
Patricia Sung 00:15
wasn't do in your ears when you need to do everyone out. So this is a replay of one of our most downloaded episodes. So one of your very favorites. And also it's a favorite of mine because I hands down, want people to not be afraid to try ADHD medicine. If it's not for you, cool, no problem. But I don't want people saying I'm not even going to try that out of fear. I want you to know all of the information available to you that I can offer you so that you can make that decision coming from a place of like security and sturdiness and knowing that like you're making the best decision for you for your child and knowing that like you have done your research and you are coming at this feeling sure of yourself. So I'm sharing with you Episode 147, which originally aired back in June of last year, entitled What I wish I knew before taking ADHD medication, your questions answered. So for those of you in the US enjoy your holiday week, sending you lots of hugs and praying for little family drama. And for those of you who aren't not celebrating Thanksgiving, may you to enjoy this day. And even without celebrating this holiday.
Patricia Sung 01:27
I hope that you have time to take a moment and appreciate what you do have even on the days that are hard, there are always little glimmers of hope. And when we start to train our brains to look at those little good things. It makes those really hard days feel not quite as terrible. So onto the episode, and I will talk to you next week successful. These are the things that I wish someone had told me from the get go. Are you overwhelmed by motherhood and barely keeping your head above water? Are you confused and frustrated by how all the other moms make it look so easy. You can figure out how to manage the chaos in your mind, your home or your family. I get your mama, parenting with ADHD is hard.
Patricia Sung 02:13
Here is your permission slip to let go of the Pinterest worthy visions of organization and structure fit for everyone else. Let's do life like our brains do life creatively, lovingly, and with all our might. When we embrace who we are and how our brains work, we can figure out how to live our lives successfully, and in turn, lead our families well, at the end of the day, we just want to be good moms. but spoiler alert, you are already a great mom. ADHD does not mean you're doomed to be a hot mess mama, you can rewrite your story from shame spiral to success story. And I'll be right here beside you to cheer you on. Welcome to motherhood in ADHD.
Patricia Sung 03:00
Hey there successful mama. It's your friend Patricia Sung. Well, it is medicine may and probably a little bit of June. In this month, I'm dedicating the episodes of the podcast to sharing quality information, debunking myths and helping you figure out what you want to do about taking ADHD medication. Now in three years, I have avoided this topic because I was scared. As soon as you start talking about medicine, all the haters show up and start trolling. So I want to be clear, this material is not intended to be medical advice. This series, the entire goal is not to tell you what to do, or you should do this, you should do that. I can't decide that for you. I don't know your medical history or your values or your coexisting medical conditions. And even if I did, not a doctor, I'm a girl with a lot of personal experience who does a mountain of research. And I want you to do the same. Investigate, research.
Patricia Sung 03:56
Don't take my word for it. Find a trained medical professional who has experience with ADHD to help you consult with your doctor and find the treatment plan that makes the best sense to fit your situation. Because you are the only one who can decide what's best for you. When we have ADHD, we have spent a lot of time in our lives and being told that our perception of reality is wrong. And that leads to a lot of self doubt and lack of trust in our own decisions, then I want to change that. My goal is to arm you with as much information and knowledge and confidence that I can. I want you to decide to take or not take medicine because you are fully comfortable and competent in your decision. So many people with ADHD are not getting the best treatment out there because of lack of information, misleading information or quite frankly, straight up BS on the internet. And by word of mouth. On top of that there is so much shame and embarrassment about having ADHD and treating ADHD. And that includes taking medicine for your mental health.
Patricia Sung 05:06
So when you show up at your doctor's office to ask about what your medicine options are, I want you to know what kinds of questions to ask. When you're talking to a provider that maybe doesn't know as much as you had hoped that you can recognize that lack of experience or knowledge, and know that you will be better served to seek out a second opinion, I want you to feel empowered when you talk to your doctor to set up your treatment plan. So with that being said, let's dive into today's episode about ADHD medication. Today's episode is all about my favorite tips and strategies on making the whole process of figuring out and actually taking your medicine run smoother and easier. As you're doing all this investigating and research and trial and error. Like it's a lot to keep track of. I know through it recently, and I understand it's a lot. So I want to give you some ways to make that easier. How can you lift the mental load and make this more doable and realistic in real life. These are the things that I wish someone had told me from the get go the things that I wish I had known, because they will make this process easier.
Patricia Sung 06:13
Now, I do want to put a little disclaimer in here that most of what I'm talking about in this struggles usually has to do with stimulant medication, there's not quite as much stigma around the non stimulants, and there's a lot less hoops that you have to jump through in order to have a prescription for the non stimulants. So just bear that in mind, as I'm talking that a lot of the struggles that I'm talking about have more to do with the stimulants so much as the non stimulants. So first, read the instructions to your medicine. I know that sounds common sense z, but common sense is not that common. And a lot of times we just forget, right? Like we shove the papers in the pile. And all of a sudden, we start taking this medicine, we never actually read the instructions. The instructions will tell you how the medicine needs to be taken if you need to take with food a certain time of day.
Patricia Sung 07:01
And if you're not sure that you're going to absorb all that information, then ask somebody you trust to read through it with you and highlight the important things like Hey, make sure you take this in the morning or make sure you eat this with or without food. Have someone help you with that. So that you know you have all the pertinent information that you need to take your medicine. Next is think about the food that you're eating with your medicine. Now the food that you're eating at the same time as your medicine can aid or prevent your body from absorbing it as it travels through your stomach and your digestive track. Some medicines, you need to take foods so that it protects you from having an upset stomach, if you're taking a stimulant, many of those say, no vitamin C. So don't drink a glass of orange juice with your medicine.
Patricia Sung 07:46
Because vitamin C will prevent that medicine from being absorbed into your body as it travels through the same thing with something that's high fat, like a nut butter that will inhibit your body from absorbing it as it travels through. Now it's okay to drink those things later in the day or eat those things later in the day. Because when you eat the medicine it's traveling through and it keeps on moving forward. So if it's made its way forward, and then you drink the arm shoes, or then you have the nut butter, it's not affecting what already happened to like pass by this is also one of the ways that our medicine can be affected. Like if you're taking the instant release, and you're taking it multiple times a day.
Patricia Sung 08:20
That means you're having to watch your food that goes with that medicine multiple times a day, I also find it helpful to choose your food wisely ahead of time so that you don't accidentally eat the thing that you shouldn't eat with the medicine. So have a plan on how you're going to take the medicine. Think it through. If you need to like put a post it note on your OJ that says don't drink this in the morning, whatever you need to do to make sure that you're setting yourself up for success. That's okay, some of your medicine is going to say, Take this 30 minutes before you eat breakfast. So in the morning, when you're like already, like half asleep and just kind of bumbling through. That's not the time for us to think about how that's going to happen. And we want to plan ahead of time when we have a clear head. So one thing that I do is I have a pillbox, I put all the pills where they need to go.
Patricia Sung 09:04
And then I know in the morning I have it sitting by my bathroom sink. And as soon as I get up and take the medicine, go to the bathroom and take my meds right when I get up. Then by the time I've gotten kids out the door for school and all at least the 30 minutes have passed and then I can eat breakfast, you might have medicine that says take it with us. And in that case, I would say again, put them in a pill organizer, and then put a snack right there next to it so that when you take the medicine, you eat the food right then put that medicine in a visual place that you're going to see right away. Some people keep it right by their nightstand with their water. So as soon as their alarm goes off, or they wake up, they see it there.
Patricia Sung 09:43
They take it there are some medicines that you need to make sure are in a safe place if you have little ones around. Or if you have someone in your family who might take it. You may not be able to leave it like a whole week's worth out somewhere. One thing I know about our brains is that we are very creative and we can figure out a way to make this work for you. So figure Don't wait to make this visual and that you will see it when it needs to happen. I also use a ton of alarms, I have an alarm to take the medicine, I have an alarm to remind me to take the medicine about 30 minutes laters in case I forgot to take the medicine. And that's my reminder for not my ATG medicine, because I also take medicine for my blood pressure, it's too low. And I have to take medicine throughout the day to keep my blood pressure up. And so I'm constantly taking medicine, and I have so many systems with backups in place to keep me accountable, because I will no longer expect my brain to keep up with that. It's unrealistic.
Patricia Sung 10:34
And it's unproductive. Don't expect your brain to keep track of things. If it doesn't have to. One, it just makes us more anxious. And two, you're opening it up the door for disaster, put all those scaffolding things in place to keep yourself successful. The other great thing about the pillbox is that I can already see if I took the medicine that day, there's nothing worse, then like 15 minutes later and being like did I take that medicine?
Patricia Sung 11:01
Like I don't want to go through the day without the medicine, I also don't want to go through the day with double medicine. Because that means not only am I going to be having way too high of a dose and very uncomfortable, I also then use up a day for later. Some people will turn the bottle like upside down or right side up to the market like that day. That week PO Box is a game changer. making it visible game changer. All the alarms game changer. Oh, and I shouldn't mention when I say read the instructions, you actually need to read the instructions every time no electrician Why would I do that I already write about us because we forget things. And too, you never know if something's changed. And they've given different instructions. So you want to read through those instructions every time you pick up your medicine, not just the first time when you took it four years ago, another obstacle that we run into is that medicines can be really expensive.
Patricia Sung 11:47
Depending on your health care coverage, what your insurance company covers, it can be quite cost prohibitive. So I would recommend one look on the internet, a lot of medicines have cost assistance programs. So there'll be like a coupon or something that you can download and take to the pharmacy with you to get it at a lower price. This is including when you have insurance or when you don't have insurance. There's cost assess programs for both and for different medicines. So definitely look into that. You also can call your insurance and say which medicines do you cover and ask them about what the generic seem to be Now, depending on where you are, what country you're in, and all that this may vary.
Patricia Sung 12:28
But here in the US, you can call your insurance and say, what are the medicines that you cover and find out whether it's the generic or the name brand, because those are going to affect you differently, even though it's supposed to be the same medicine, something about it is slightly different. And for some people, it makes a very large difference whether they're taking the name brand, the generic, and also depending on which generic because different companies make their own version of the generic. So you can have multiple different formulations of generics as well. So you call your insurance and find out which ones they'll cover.
Patricia Sung 12:58
Because a lot of times if you have insurance, they'll at least give you a discount. But it might not be like one of the cheap ones. So sometimes the medicine is like 510, maybe 20 bucks. And then other times it's like well, it's cheaper, but cheaper means $143. So call ahead of time and find out what their approved formulations are, very often they will make you try the cheaper ones first. And if you have documentation with your doctor, that three different cheap ones, like the ones that they cover, don't work for you, then they'll cover the expensive one at a more reasonable cost to you. But you have to go through like all these hoops and stuff. So call your insurance company find out what their policy is, so that you can go in knowing where to start.
Patricia Sung 13:45
Because it can be a very expensive trial and error process. If you spend like $250 on our medicine, and then it turns out, it doesn't work for you. Another option is to ask your doctor hey, can you write me a prescription for five of these? Like ask your insurance company? Like if I'm trying this out? If I buy five of it instead of 30 of them? Can I get like a lower cost? Some will some won't. You have to ask them, like 100 questions. I know that that is an option to ask if you can do like a mini prescription and see how that works. Now some doctors will be like I don't want to fuss with writing you another prescription later. I know.
Patricia Sung 14:18
So you're trading, but know that there are options out there for you to figure out how to make this work for you. Okay, next tip, if you decide that a medicines not working for you, please do not cold turkey. Like depending on how long you've been taking a medicine and how it functions in your body, and many, many things in some ways, just not taking your medicine is not good for you. It's a very unfortunate process to let your body adjust. So you can make up your mind anytime to change your mind about what you want to do. Well, you want to have a plan. So if you're starting taking medicine and you tell your doctor I'm like, Okay, if this doesn't work out, what's our plan for something else? Like you can ask when you're there like if this doesn't work, what should I do? Do I need to wean off this medicine? Is it okay to just stop taking it, find that out. And that will ease your anxiety to know like, if this doesn't work out, here's my exit plan.
Patricia Sung 15:08
Another thing you want to do when you're in that appointment of getting your medicine is ask your doctor, like, what are some red flags I should look for? Tell the other people in your family, hey, I'm starting this pneumolysin If you see these things, let me know. You know, obviously, if you you have people you can trust to do that with know what it is to keep an eye out for when you start so that if something happens, you can be like, Okay, this is to be expected, or you know what I shouldn't feel this way or This shouldn't have happened with this. And then you have a more calm and just less anxiety when you know what to expect. I also suggest trying medicines on a day where you don't have a lot of stuff planned. So if it all goes south for some reason, you know, today is not a highly important day, if I need to, like hide in my bed, if I need to stay on my couch. I don't have anything major going on. So I know that there's a possibility that that week may go a little haywire and just keep your load light. Also, think about like where you are in your cycle. Is this a time to be like testing things? Or is this a time where your body's already in an upheaval? Maybe usually don't next week, okay? It does take a while to get used to your medicine, just like if you were seekers every day, and then you go to a new job and you have to wear heels, you just need that time to adjust. It's a little painful yellow bolsters maybe, but you have that adjustment time. But you also know, if you're like, hey, my feet are on fire, oh, this is not a good shoe for you.
Patricia Sung 16:34
Next time, if you are going with a stimulant that is a controlled substance in the US, you can only get a 30 day supply. So while I was sorting out which medicines to do, I met with my doctor monthly. And then once we kind of settled out, we're like, Okay, this is working well, I think we're in a good place, we move to a quarterly visit. So every three months it was entered on then every month, I have to request my medicine, she suggests that you send in your refill about four business days before you run out, that gives her time to process it, get it over to the pharmacy for them to fill it. And you have this little window, it's usually like three days on either end, more or less, where you can pick up your 30 pills.
Patricia Sung 17:15
Now, if you wait too long, they will take the pills out of the bottle, you get less, which I'm sure there's a very good reason somewhere. It still doesn't make sense in my head. But like, for example, one time we were on vacation, and I knew I can't get it refilled before we leave because we were gone for over a week. But I also like didn't want to try to mess with sending a prescription to another pharmacy in a different state. So I'm like, It's okay, I'm just I adjusted for the month for the one day that I was going to be without medicine. And I knew I would pick it up when we landed that day and be able to take it the next day. Well don't know. Like I cancelled what I got pushed back like a whole nother day. And then by the time we got in, it was actually too late at night for me to go to the pharmacy was already closed. And like it was like this whole disaster. Well, I get to the pharmacy the next day, and I only got 27 pills. And I'm like, where's the rest of my medicine? And it's like, Well, you already were out of the window. So you don't get the full 30 pills. I'm like, Huh? Okay. So when you're
Patricia Sung 18:13
using a controlled substance, there are a lot of rules and hoops that you have to jump through. It's unfortunate. I'm not going to get on my soapbox about X, I'll be here for a real long time. Here's where we are. Now because it is a controlled substance, you have the responsibility of keeping them safe. Which I mean straight up sounds ridiculous when you're like, hey, you know how you're really bad at from, like forgetting stuff and losing things. Well, you can't lose this stuff. Because you can't get a reversal. If you lose your medicine, you drop it, it falls in the drain.
Patricia Sung 18:42
Whatever happens like you can't get a refill until the next time around. So again, this is a time where you want to like wrack your brain and figure out how do I make this work for me where I'm not going to have a problem do I need to get a little safe from my house. Unfortunately, we have to be real honest and say that there are some people who will come into your home and take your medicine because they either want it for themselves or they can sell it and make a lot of money. So you have to find a way to keep that safe in your home, you have to find a way to keep it from getting lost. Don't carry around a whole bunch with you case your purse gets stolen. Also be aware that because it is a controlled substance depending on where you are located. In some places, you have to have the actual bottle with you with your name and all to show that it's yours and in other places you don't. So just be aware that that can be a problem. Like if you're on vacation or something and you're worried just leave your large supply at home and just take the prescription bottle with you with your information on it with just the amount you need for that trip. Generally speaking, I advocate for people with ADHD to have multiples of everything always have extras with you when it comes to your medicine. I do not just carry with you like whatever you need for that day, but don't carry a whole bunch of extra stuff with you. It opens you up for problems later and I so wish that I didn't even have to have this conversation but it's the truth and we need to protect ourselves and for Fortunately, the laws in place are not protecting us who need the medicine, except for the fact that we're still able to get it.
Patricia Sung 20:06
They're designed to keep all the people who are not using it wisely to make it more difficult for them. And again, oh, this is the whole soapbox. I haven't I mean, I got to close the backs. Not going into that, let me just say, there is little grace if you lose or misplace or someone has stolen your medicine, so please keep it safe, where you will be able to use it to take care of your health. Okay, next question that I get a lot of is how do I broach this subject with my doctor? How do I talk to them about wanting to take ADHD medication, and the underlying context is usually without feeling like some kind of addict searching for trucks. So before I address that portion is, logistically, what do you do? How do you go back and listen to episode 120? Which is all about how do you prepare for your doctor's appointment? Where I explained an episode like how do you prepare for that appointment so that you go in feeling competent, in how to talk about it, writing down all the ways that you think ADHD affects you? So you can have that conversation? Well, it's the same thing.
Patricia Sung 21:07
I also want you to write down why you feel medicine would help you Why do you want to try this out. So follow those same instructions, make sure you've talked to your doctor about the diagnosis, and then how you want to try medicine and the whole point of medicine which going back, I've said this multiple times in this series, the point of the medicine is to create an environment that is more conducive for you to implement and keep going with the strategies and the treatments that you're putting in place. Because we are not the most consistent of people. And that's okay, we don't have to be consistent, we are persistent, right? We keep going, we keep trying. And when you have medicine, it makes it easier to keep going and keep trying because it's another way to support yourself. caveat, it's easier when you find the right one. Okay. So when you go talk to your doctor, prepare ahead of time, you got up to 120, you got your list of reasons of why you'd like to try medicine, if you feel like you need to justify it, you can write a list of here's all the things that I've tried that haven't worked.
Patricia Sung 22:06
And I think medicine is the next step for me, you can do that. But also, you don't have to do that. You don't have to defend yourself into taking a treatment for something that you have been diagnosed with, because you have a thing that you've been diagnosed with. And this is one of the treatments like that is okay, you don't have to defend, you don't have to justify, you don't have to feel defensive or less than an asking for this help. You should be asking for help. And you know that I don't like the word shit, you should be asking for help, you should be looking for extra tools to support you. If you're not okay with where you are, and you want more support, you should get the support you need. And if medicine is one of those things that will help you, you do not have to defend yourself the same way you would now go to your cancer doctor and your cancer doctor, your oncologist and like present a case for taking chemo, you don't have to do that, like you have cancer chemotherapy treatment, would you like to pursue the treatment or not, you can't see classes or an option for treatment, I would like to get glasses, I want you to think of your mental health in the same way that you think of your physical health.
Patricia Sung 23:17
This is a treatment available, I would like to try it, I want you to feel confident in that decision because you know what's best for you. Now, caveat, there are a lot of professionals out there who don't know as much about ADHD as we wish they did. If you're approaching this situation with competence, and you have researched and you know that this is something you'd like to pursue, and you get that pushback where they're like, I don't know, I don't really know if I want to prescribe you that to me, red flag, red flag red flag, perhaps this is not the right person for you to be talking with. If you after going through the last two years of all my health issues, and seeing specialist after specialist who looked at me studied all my labs did all kinds of tests and couldn't tell me what is wrong with me.
Patricia Sung 24:04
I have no EFS to give for providers who don't know as much as me, sorry, if you can't help me, that's okay. I will find someone who can. I'm not mad about it. Okay, I'm a little bit about it. I'm not mad at them for not knowing what I need, but I'm not going to see the wrong specialist for what I need. If I have a problem with my foot, I see a podiatrist. I don't go see a cardiologist. If I have a problem with my elbow. I see the orthopedic surgeon, not the ophthalmologist, right, we have to see the specialist who fits what we need. If that person is uncomfortable in prescribing a verified and well researched treatment for something then maybe they're not the right person. Now, I understand that there are times where you don't have the option to see someone else. And in that case, you got to go with your gut and figure out do I want to stick with this person because it's cheaper? thing go through the rigmarole of teaching them about ADHD? Or do I want to walk away and try to figure out another option? Like, unfortunately, that sometimes is a situation that we're in, I get it. I'm not at all dismissing that. That's the reality of where we are.
Patricia Sung 25:13
But if you have the option to see someone else, find someone who knows what they're talking about, if you don't, that's the moment where you have to decide, what am I going to do? Am I going to go through the trouble to try to convince this person so they can help me? Or am I going to find another solution? I truly wish this was not even a problem that we had to discuss why on earth, I know more about something than medical professionals who have gone to med school and taking care of 1000s of people over decades, I don't know. But here we are. Some people just don't know about this thing. And that's just the world we live in. I don't like it, not happy about it. But this is why I always advocate for finding a specialist who's truly ADHD informed and has experience working with people who have ADHD.
Patricia Sung 26:00
Do you wish there was a way to feel confident about your day, to know exactly where you need to be? When you need to be there and what you need to do today, I know what it's like to buy 15 Different planners and not use any of them for more than a week or two. When you're tired of disappointing your family, your boss and yourself. Imagine with me that tonight, when you look back at your day, you know that you did the things on your to do list, you showed up? Well, you feel productive and accomplished. That's why I created daily planning for ADHD moms, where I teach you how to keep a calendar and organize your to do list. When you learn these skills from another ADHD brain in super short videos, they finally make sense. So now you'll be able to keep up with the commitments you've made and feel confident and how you're organizing your day, you will walk away with an easy to stick to three step system to keep up with your calendar and a simple way to sort through the giant to do list and figure out what actually matters. Plus we have a weekly accountability group.
Patricia Sung 27:01
So you can ask questions when you're stuck and jump back on the wagon when you fall off, because you will fall off. That's just part of ADHD. But now you will know how to prepare for that. So if you're ready to figure out your day in a way that makes sense both for mom wife and an ADHD brain, I want to help you make this happen. Join me at bit.ly/adhdplan. That's be it period L y forward slash ad HD plan. It's all lowercase letters. I cannot wait to see you feel confident and competent in how you run your family life.
Patricia Sung 27:39
Now to address the second part is that oftentimes that question comes loaded with because I feel like I'm some kind of addicts eating drugs when you have ADHD. And I'm not going to get into the science of the medicine because we have other episodes to talk about that. So go back and listen to the interview with Dr. Parcells. When you have ADHD, the stimulants affect you in a different way, they do not affect someone who does not have ADHD in the same way that they affect someone who has ADHD. So when we have this stigma that stimulants are addictive and cause problems and people, you know, their whole life falls apart, because now they're addicted to drugs. That is a different situation.
Patricia Sung 28:20
This is not the situation we're talking about. It is two different things. When you are using a prescribed substance in the way that it has been instructed and dosed for you your specific situation, it is not the same thing. As someone abusing drugs, they're two different things. In the same way that money can be used for a wonderful things and to help a lot of people money can also be used with greed and with power to turn it into something that's awful. They're two different situations. And we can't apply a blanket statement to everything. There are nuances everywhere. So you asking for medicine to take care of your mental health is not the same thing as seeking drugs, because you have an addiction. And like I could go, I could do a whole episode just on ADHD and addiction. And I do actually have that mls of like, because people need help and they don't know how to help themselves. They don't have the skills they need to deal with the problem. And that thing that was okay turns into an addiction because it was too much and used in the wrong way and used to escape. And that is also a mental health issue.
Patricia Sung 29:37
It is not a moral feeling. It's not poor character. It's someone who needs a lot of help, and a lot of love and a lot of support. But here I am getting off on another tangent. Because it's important to say because we in our community with ADHD we are so much more susceptible to addiction, but it's not a Addiction to following our medicine as prescribed, it's an addiction to all the other things that we use to bandaid and duct tape the problems that we haven't dealt with in a healthy way. So bringing it back around, listen to the series, gather all your information, make a list of questions you have for your doctor, make a list of reasons, if it makes you feel better of why you would like to try medicine, but you don't have to defend yourself.
Patricia Sung 30:27
You don't have to justify wanting to take an approved, quote unquote approved treatment for your mental health issues. This is available for you if you want it. Unfortunately, this is not well understood in the world, and the judgments of other people on how you live your life do affect us, we wish we could just like turn it off and put in a box and ignore it. And it is possible to build the skills where other people's words affect you last, but they do affect us. And I want you to spend the time to dig in and know that your decision is your decision, and you're doing what's best for you. And it's okay to make the decision that other people disagree with for your life. I won't dismiss how difficult it is, I won't dismiss all the ripple effect of that. But I will tell you, it's okay for you to choose something different than the other people around you would choose if that's what you need to be successful. Because when we have that competence in our decision, it's a lot easier to let the other people's opinions roll off your back when you know that this is what's best for you. Let's be honest, there's a pretty good chance that those other people's opinions are also rooted in fear.
Patricia Sung 31:50
And how is fear balanced? It's balanced with love and knowledge, when we can confidently say no, I'm not going to get addicted to this medicine for my mental health treatment because of A, B, C and D, then that causes the fear when we can say, Okay, I know that there's these side effects. But here's my plan to keep an eye out for them. And here's my plan to mitigate that as much as I can. And here's my plan that if I need to change my mind, or I need to switch medicines, here's my plan for what I'm going to do in those scenarios. Or I don't need a plan, because the likelihood of that occurring is so tiny, it's not worth being that stressed about. But if something happens, I know what to do. If all else fails, something that happens I call my doctor and ask and like a little part of me is like Patricia don't go around telling everybody to like what if their way to death on every path, because also, that's my perfectionism squeaking in there of having to have control of the situation in every single angle.
Patricia Sung 32:45
What if this, I have a plan, like, that's part of my anxiety that I'm dealing with. So like just little disclaimer there, you don't have to What if every single thing, you don't have to plan for every single thing. But working through those fears. And knowing whether or not this is something that's actually worth being afraid of makes us a lot more confident our decisions. Because when we look at the overall picture, comparing the risk of trying the medicine, which is fairly low, which we can see statistically how much these medicines have been tested compared to the reward of being able to get your life together faster and easier. And beyond the path to success that makes sense for you to figure out how to make your life work within the social confines that were required to do. To me that risk reward comparison is there. And if for you it's not, that's okay. But I know that now you have enough information to say I'm confident in that decision, even if that decision is no than this is worth it. Because like I said at the beginning, my job isn't to tell you whether or not you should take medicine. My job is to give you enough information so that you can make the best decision for you.
Patricia Sung 33:54
Okay, last set of tips are all about adjusting your medicine. When you find one that's like kind of sort of working here. I think this might we might be on to something here. All right, how do we make sure that we have figured out the dosing and the timing and all that makes sense for you? Well, we're still in this trial and error phase. But there are ways to make it easier to figure out what's working and what's not working and make that process go a little faster and a little smoother. Here's what I got for you. One, you want to keep track of your symptoms. And I know you're like Patricia, I can barely keep track of taking the medicine. How do you want me to keep track of how I feel? Gotcha. What I do is I use Google Keep and I'm sure there's probably an iPhone app that will do the same Google Keep is basically like the notes function on an Apple phone.
Patricia Sung 34:38
And in the Google Keep, I have a note that says track your symptoms and there's a reminder on it and then set it for however often you need to be doing it so depending on like Are you good with just at the end of the day running through how that went? Are you like I don't know what happened two hours ago. Maybe it needs to be a reminder at lunch and at dinner. Maybe you want a reminder at At midday, and before you go to bed, you can set the keeper reminder or the notes reminder to go off at that time and it pops up. And it's like track your symptoms. And so all I do is write the DT and a couple of words like I'm not making a fancy chart or anything here, so it pops up. And I'm like, oh, yeah, real quick date, couple of words on Heartland and hit save and move on. So it's prompting me to write it down. I don't have to remember to go fill out a chart later. Or think back like, oh, when you get to your point, when you're like, Oh, how's it been? The last two weeks? I'm like, oh, no, writing down just a couple words gives me a feeling of confidence. And knowing I can say, Okay, well
Patricia Sung 35:34
here on these days, it was working by this time. And we like when I look back at my notes, it's like, well, we know by three o'clock is starting to wear off. And you can make adjustments that the more information you can give your doctor the better, they can adjust. But here's the thing, a lot of us like, in the moment, when somebody asks us, how's it going, we're like, oh, I don't know, fine. And then you go home, and you're like, Ooh, I should have said this, this and this. So that notes on my phone is always there to reference. The other valuable part is that I can see the patterns, when I have several data points and see like, oh, well, I noticed that, you know, in the afternoons, or I'm having this issue.
Patricia Sung 36:08
Whereas if I just think back, I don't remember, I don't notice the patterns. But our brains are really great at looking for patterns and seeing what other people don't see. So given all that information, and I'm able to go back and look at it, it's oh, this is way more useful than what I just attempted to remember. And then how often should you adjust will, you'll want to talk with your doctor specifically about that issue, depending on the medicine. But for me with my doctor, she recommended that you take two full weeks of trying out the medicine, understand that it's going to be topsy turvy, figuring things out, letting things settle out, letting your body get used to doing things in a different way. And then in that third week is when you really start to see the difference. And where things are going to be more I won't say permanently. But more realistically, like by that third week, things kind of settle out. And it's like, okay, this is more of a true reading of what is actually going to be like, and so she adjusts every month, which feels like 100 years when you have ADHD because we want to have a solution.
Patricia Sung 37:13
Now we don't want to wait a whole month. But we also need to give our bodies the grace to like get used to stuff and figure it out and have enough data points to say this is working or this isn't because in a very short time, we don't really have enough information to make a quality decision. Obviously, like I've said before, like if something really terrible goes wrong, then yeah, stop the medicine call your doctor right away. But most of the issues that come up aren't in that like Red Alert category. It's more like wow, I am not a big fan of this or this is really uncomfortable or like I don't know about this. The most of those will settle out in the first two weeks. And then that next two weeks is when you're seeing like okay, now I have quality information to accumulate and go on.
Patricia Sung 37:56
So there you have it. These are the things that I wish somebody had told me from the get go, these are the things that I wish I had known from the beginning the things that I find super helpful in my journey of figuring out what medicine makes sense for me what medicine is working for me. Is this something I want to do now? How do I make it work best for my situation? So I hope that this firsthand experience will give you a little easier journey to learn from my mistakes and my obstacles and my struggles and know that yes, this is hard. Yes, this is difficult. And also true. That finding the full treatment and full support plan for how you can live life well with ADHD is totally worth it. So I am wishing you the best of luck and figuring out what's the decision that's best for you and let me know.
Patricia Sung 38:49
Shoot me an email, send me a message on Instagram. join the Facebook group and get in there. Talk to the other mamas share your experiences. Listen from other women who have gone through it before. Find your community and get the support to live life well with ADHD. I'll talk to you soon successful mama. Hey there, Mama. I've got something fun for you. Who doesn't love a quiz? I want to know which mama animal are you because you're not your average Mama Bear. You have a magical ADHD brain that puts a sprinkle of brilliance on everything you do.
Patricia Sung 39:25
Sure you may have forgotten that laundry in the washer for the third time. But what are your strengths? What makes your ADHD parenting style unique to you? How do you use that sparkle to bless your family? So which mama animal are you? Find out by taking the quiz What's your ADHD mama parenting style because you're not your average Mama Bear? Head on over to Patricia sung.com forward slash quiz and find out and then when you do I want you to post your results on social media so we can see that your hashtag, not your average Mama Bear along with the hashtag I'm a mama and then Fill in the animal that you get. Again, that's Patricia sung.com forward slash quiz. And I can't wait to see what you get. So tag me and motherhood in ADHD for more resources, classes and community, head over to my website motherhoodinadhd.com.